[rollei_list] Re: OT: Antiques Roadshow... Photography Edition

From: Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxxxxx>

To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:10:28 -0400

Authenticity will never be proved. And I doubt that legal ownership,
including reproduction rights, will be either, but that varies markedly from
country to country and even state to state...
Eric Goldstein
--
On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 1:06 PM, Chris Burck <chris.burck@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> $200m seems like a wildly optimistic estimate for 65 negs. they seem to be
> basing that figure, on the one hand, on the potential revenues to be made,
> over time, on the sale of posters and prints. but on the other, they
> reference the $700k+ sale of one of adams' prints, as though that somehow
> factored in the calculus. which makes no sense to me, because no print or
> poster they sell (assuming their venture goes forward), will ever be able to
> carry the claim of being an adams print.
>
> as far as the legality/copyright issues, i haven't a clue. intellectual
> property rights are a huge grey area. but i don't see why the guy couldn't
> do it, assuming authenticity could be proved.
>
> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 3:31 AM, David Sadowski <dsadowski@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>>
>> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j2f9n7NC02rLPFNtita9WZOR-wdwD9H7MGIO0
>>
>> It's interesting how Ansel Adams' grandson is so skeptical and
>> apparently uninterested in this treasure trove of glass plates. His
>> attitude seems to be the negs are worthless because of the way AA
>> manipulated his images in the darkroom.
>>
>> It would not surprise me if this eventually leads to a lawsuit.
>> Adams' grandson is objecting to the use of AA's name with a commercial
>> enterprise.
>>
>> This could lead to an interesting court case. I suppose it is
>> possible to own the negs but not own the copyright, in the same manner
>> that you can own a letter written by Salinger but not be able to
>> publish it?
>>
>> So, on the one hand, if these negs are really by Ansel Adams, how can
>> anyone else besides the Adams Trust make money off them? Unless you
>> could demonstrate that he sold them? Or is it simply that they were
>> abandoned property if he left them at a place where he taught in the
>> early 1940s?
>>
>> If I wrote a novel, and lost the manuscript, and years later someone
>> found it, wouldn't I still own the copyright? I don't get how this
>> guy can make $200m off Ansel just because he has these negs- unless he
>> backpedals on the claim that they are by Adams, in which case they
>> won't be worth that kind of money.
>> ---
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>